Dixon has made national news several times in its almost 200-year history. The city’s saddest tragedy, no doubt, would be the 1873 Truesdell Bridge disaster, which killed 46.

But Dixon’s saddest tragedy of the past 100 years is likely the 1957 story of the little Guernsey girls. The heart-rending accident emerged from a quarry at Dixon’s cement plant and was front-page news from coast to coast.

Around July 1, 1957, John Guernsey, 33, and his wife, Ruth, 31, moved to Dixon from Boscobel, Wisconsin, with their eight children. John worked for his father-in-law, Herb Turner, of the excavating firm of H. Turner and Son, which landed a short-term contract with the cement plant. John’s job was to lead a crew of about seven workers to fill an abandoned quarry there.

Seeking to keep the family t

See Full Page